''Ramadapis sahnii'' was a primitive

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

belonging to

Sivaladapidae Sivaladapidae is an extinct family of adapiform primates from Asia. They survived longer than any other adapiform primate because they were able to shift south as the climate cooled. Their remains date from the Eocene through the Miocene The ...

that existed around 11 to 14 million years ago ( Early to Mid-Miocene). Only a

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

(a lower jaw bone) was found at the dig site, which was near Ramnagar in

Udhampur district Udhampur is a district in the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Covering an area of in the Himalayan mountains, the district has its headquarters in the town of Udhampur. The Northern Command headquarters of the Indian Army is lo ...

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

specifically the lower

Siwalik The Sivalik Hills, also known as the Shivalik Hills and Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the Indian ...

deposits. The jawbone indicates that ''Ramadapis'' resembled a modern day

ring-tailed lemur The ring-tailed lemur (''Lemur catta'') is a large strepsirrhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of five lemur families, and is the only member of the ''Lemur'' ge ...

. The early

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 exist ...

was named after Ashok Sahni, who discovered the first sivaladapid in the

deposits. The

was only around one and a quarter inch long, which led scientists to assume that it was only around 11 pounds.

Ecology

The environment that ''Ramadapis sahnii'' lived in is highly disputed upon. It has been hypothesized to either be a woodland, a grassland with few trees, a humid tropical forest, and finally a sort of half grassland and woodland.

References

Prehistoric strepsirrhines Miocene primates of Asia Primates of South Asia Taxa described in 2017 {{Primate-stub